He Studies Computer Science But is Bad at Math

hi it's the math sorcerer here in this video I'm going to be answering an email that I received from one of the viewers his name is Nicolas and let's go ahead and read his message the subject is do you have any advice for an aspiring honor student who isn't great at math dear math sorcerer super sorry for the bother no bother I just don't know who to ask this question I don't know any math majors and you seem really smart and able to give good advice I am a computer science undergrad from Iowa and I really really love math but I never got very good at it in high school I have to take college algebra this upcoming semester that's an awesome class and we'll need to eventually work my way through calc one to three and linear algebra according to my advisor sounds like a lot of fun that's what that sounds like I really want to get my cumulative GPA up to 3.5 and so you shall Nicolas but I have always been bad at math and I do not know how to get better fast enough and to get great grades in my class yeah that's the key right because in class you have a time constraint so you have to somehow meet that constraint to satisfy by learning everything before the test and rocking the test and that is the challenge that is part of the challenge I bought a few algebra pre-calc textbooks and have been self-studying it's a good start there are parts that I do not understand and can't for the life of me figure out between three books been there that's what's tough I do not work much and I'm able and willing to put in 40 hours a week into my studies but I do not know how to effectively apply the time in order to be most effective and not waste the time right so it sounds like you need a structured plan do you have any suggestions I really really want to get a GPA higher than 3.5 this semester and I'm willing to do whatever it takes short of selling my soul thank you sorry again if this is not the right place for this question Nicolas oh thank you Nicolas for your question so it sounds like you're already in college or maybe you're going to be starting to take math in college that's I'm going to assume that you haven't taken math in college yet so you've got the books you've got the motivation you're self-studying you're hitting roadblocks which is something that I think is always going to happen with math right you're always going to hit those roadblocks so the trick is how do you overcome them well in your specific situation I would recommend um picking up a course right I have um udemy courses and I think the one on college algebra can actually help you I usually don't I don't try to like pump my courses too much they're in the they're in the description so if you go in the description of this video just click on the college algebra one and it's pretty good I think it's one of my better courses because it's so comprehensive and it has so many videos and the big thing about the course is that it's organized that that's the key difference right because you can go on YouTube and you can search for videos and you can find anything you want but when you want something that is structured and organized if you follow you know the videos in that course in order I think it will help you um the course roughly follows uh the book by Blitzer college algebra by Blitzer so if you do decide to purchase the course you can get an old copy of Blitzer for just a few dollars on a website like bookfinder.com just search for like an older edition you should be able to get one pretty cheaply um so I think it's what you need I think you need a structured game plan and so buying a course can give you that game plan if you don't buy my course just buy another one get something that gives you something that is structured so that you don't you don't just have the books you're already doing really well you're already using like three books I mean you're already doing awesome I think what's going to happen is this I think you're going to take that college algebra class and I think you're going to do awesome because what that class is going to give you it's going to give you one instructor so you can ask them questions and two it's going to give you structures so you're going to know what to study and in what order and anything you can get from the lectures whether they be remote or face to face doesn't matter what it is anything is better than nothing right anything you get at this point is better than nothing because you've already got the books you're already self-studying so in your situation you're doing really really well and I think once you add some structure to that by either purchasing a course or actually taking your college algebra course I think you're going to do really good yeah so that's my thoughts if anyone else has any other opinions or thoughts for Nicole loss and I left his last name out of it please leave a comment I hope this has been helpful and yeah good luck and take care

Channel: The Math Sorcerer

Views: 25,599

Keywords: computer science, bad at math, studies, math, learn math, computer, science

Id: PZwsKfo5VXE

Length: 4min 42sec (282 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 10 2022